It is known that bad weather conditions (fog, rain, snow, etc.) are one of the main sources of disturbances for airport operations. In particular, they reduce the visibility, thus limiting the capacities of the pilots to see the runway and its environment, possibly as far as preventing the aircraft from taking off or from setting down. That generates delays, even flight cancellations that are costly for the air transport industry.
Normally, in an approach for a landing, the solutions proposed for guiding the aircraft to the runway when the visibility is too degraded by weather conditions, are based on a ground infrastructure participating actively in the guiding of the aircraft. The deployment and maintaining in operational condition of such an infrastructure however have a not-inconsiderable cost, limiting the deployment in some regions of the world.
The aim of the present invention is to propose an aid to the guiding of an aircraft to the landing runway that does not require a ground infrastructure, or a passive infrastructure (that is to say without electronic means), while limiting the extra cost at the aircraft level.
To be able to implement an appropriate approach, notably offering the same operational advantages as a precision approach, without using an instrument landing aiding system of the ILS (Instrument Landing System) type, there needs to be accurate aircraft position information available.